Updated: April 29, 2009
H. Carl McCall, the former New York State Comptroller, was the first black person elected to statewide office in New York and the state's first serious black candidate for governor in 2002, losing to George E. Pataki.
The son of a single welfare mother, Mr. McCall graduated from Dartmouth. He was a high school teacher and later became an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. Mr. McCall served in the State Senate from Manhattan. He was appointed United States ambassador to the United Nations. He has served as a vice president of Citicorp, and been president of the New York City Board of Education.